Stop thinking of Palin as the next President

I run hot and cold when it comes to Andrew Breitbart. Half the time he seems like a man with something to hide; of course, it usually turns out that he was (a new ACORN video or website) — but until he unveils it, he sets off my Man To Avoid alarm.

He’s onto something. If Palin become the new (conservative) Oprah, certain burdens and expectations fall away. She can be herself and fill a media void.

Anybody can be a politician. But very few can pull off an “Oprah” — Palin would be terrific, though. When people say, “I like her, but…”, that’s what they are trying to articulate: square peg, round hole.

I call it genre displasia. People who’d just shrug off Ann Coulter if she’d done what she should have done with her talents — become a stand up comedian — can’t cope with her as a lawyer/pundit. Coulter is subsequently subject to a level of criticism and scrunity far heavier than she and her comments can sometimes bear.

Both women are undeniably photogenic, smart and articulate (although Palin is more guarded and therefore more ridigly “beauty pageant articulate” than Coulter, who has a more masculine style.) Were Palin to stop “running for office” in her head/in reality and reposition herself, even if just in her own mind, that self-censoring rigidity would fall away.